In the design and creativity sphere, it seems like the name Kickstarter is on everyone’s lips these days. Sure, the popular crowdfunding platform has grabbed headlines while giving us a varied cornucopia of things like cardboard furniture, iPod watches, and movies based on cancelled TV shows, but there’s more to it than that. Whether you’ve backed a project, launched one, or just observed the furious sprint-to-funding that can ensue, there’s no denying that this Kickstarter style of funding has irrevocably changed product creation, financial models, and maybe even “e-commerce” itself.

And even beyond those achievements, the platform has also affected brands. Kickstarter has altered the exchange between people and the companies or products they support — which has important implications for brands looking to connect with their audiences. The unique type of relationship created by crowdfunding is powerful, and it’s important to know that effective, emotional audience engagement has grown beyond our old transactional models.

All of that to say that we can learn a lot about what it means to capture audience attention, support, and passion from the ways that Kickstarter projects draw people in. Brands would do well to incorporate some of these subtle lessons into their communications, design, branding, and marketing. Better yet, baking these fresh thoughts into your brand’s very DNA is an even better idea. To that end, we’ve mined 10 lessons your brand can learn from the sticky engagement of Kickstarter:

1. Make your audience part of your process.
When people see early stage sketches, grand plans, or the possibility of “what might be,” and have an opportunity to give feedback, they’re more invested in the process. And this doesn’t have to be crowdsourcing, per se — it’s more about having a bias towards sharing and including, especially for your most loyal and valuable audiences. “Behind the scenes” is exciting for people! Whether you’re designing, crafting, strategizing, or shakin’ what your Momma gave you, your audiences will view you as more approachable and relatable when they feel involved in your day-to-day dealings in some fundamental way.

2. Personality goes a long way.
Jules from Pulp Fiction had it right. What you’re offering to an audience is only one piece of the puzzle, whether it’s on Kickstarter, or in your marketplace. How you do so is also important. The best projects aren’t just the ones with slick videos and high production values –they have real personality.

In our quest to project that flawless image of perfection — seeming like we know exactly what we’re doing — it can be easy to sacrifice a brand’s humanity, its unique voice, warts and all. Great Kickstarter projects allow those bits of personality to seep out — untucked shirts, quirky turns of phrase, wild passions — giving people the chance to embrace these bits and the real people underneath. Regardless of how oddball it is, passion and transparency together can be contagious. There is something appealing about the unvarnished and honest, no matter how unusual it is. Sara O’Mara summed all of this up well: “Always be human. Be professional when necessary.”

3. Your mission can be as important as your products.
Kickstarter has done something interesting in that people don’t have to “make a purchase” to support a project. They can just give a dollar or two in the name of showing support of a person, a cause, or an idea. At its root, does your brand have an ideal that people love, in addition to what you will do for them? If your brand revolves around a powerful, imagination-capturing mission, it gives your audiences an intriguing way to get on the same page as your organization, to your benefit. Your products or services will seem that much more impressive and powerful with that missional backdrop in place.

4. Everyone likes an underdog.
There’s something satisfying about backing the longshot, and seeing it pay off. The old “I knew them before they were famous” line isn’t just a cliché, it’s a way of deeply connecting with people and brands who we believe are more like us — those who might not be the VC-backed favorites or the deep-pocketed prom queens and kings. Almost by definition, Kickstarter projects are stories of underdogs (why else would they be there?), and that is something that resonates with the audiences of many brands.

5. Success breeds more success.
This seems to fly in the face of the previous lesson, but it’s still true. Research has shown that a majority of projects that reach 70% support eventually succeed in their funding, because prospective backers believe that they are going to succeed, so the pile-on begins. The perception of “destined to make it” can sometimes lead to actually making it. When your brand wears the clothes of success (awards, testimonials, experts endorsing), it brings a credibility to what you’re doing. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. This might also be another vote in the “fake it til you make it” camp, so brands should wear success like it came right from their closet.

6. Responsive communication is golden.
The most successful Kickstarter projects have dozens of updates from project creators, letting backers have consistent, moment-by-moment status updates on their effort. These take the form of encouragements, new ideas, and answers to questions. What would it do to your brand if your team devoted themselves to meaningful communication with your audiences at that level? Could you build time and energy into making every brand touchpoint a place for real communication with your audiences? The fruits would undoubtedly be audience surprise, delight, and a much deeper investment in whatever you’re doing.

7. Engaging stories win the day.
Kickstarter projects tend to live or die by the quality of their pitch videos — not the production values, sound, or lighting — but by how well creators are able to get out of their own way and tell a compelling story. This is almost a cliché at this point, but it’s worth taking a good look in the mirror of your brand to honestly see if what you’re saying to intended audiences has the power to excite, arouse, and lead to the changes you want to see.

8. Create brand insiders.
Do your best customers, clients, or supporters know they are VIPs? Do they feel special? Kickstarter projects often give preferences to early adopters or first responders, who then have a chance to bypass the velvet rope. Do your top targets get special privileges, insider info, or just better access to the things that matter to them? This probably isn’t a fake, systemic “rewards program.” It could be as simple as making sure your top 10 customers always get their calls answered the first time, by a real person. Everyone likes to feel like an insider.

9. Bake in some urgency.
If you launch a Kickstarter project, it has a discrete end date. The whole thing is timed, and builds to what is hopefully an exciting climax. This keeps the pace up, but is different than the car salesman’s “What would it take for you to drive out of here today?” This isn’t artificial urgency, it’s telling your brand story in a way that moves people to act now. Is it a timely connection to world events? A right-place-right time sort of scenario? Sounding the urgent horn isn’t something to do all the time, but for brands looking to make a splash, ringing the alarm bells judiciously can have great results.

10. Wacky ideas are worth breeding and supporting.
Finally, Kickstarter is generally a denizen for products, ideas, and dreams that are a little bit outside the norm. They’re unusual, and not as mainstream. If they were for “everyone,” they’d be on Wal-Mart shelves instead. But crowdfunding shows that there’s money, passion, and interest in the unusual and bizarre. Maybe there are “riches in the niches,” but even if they’re not, your brand will do better by promoting and championing the goofballs and weirdos, because deep down, we all understand and love them.

The world is changing. We are rapidly evolving away from a marketplace ruled by mass culture, to one filled with a riotous patchwork of specific niches. Not long ago, one-size-fits-all communications, branding, and products stood at the top of the heap. Whether it was the Big Three TV networks, Top 40 Radio, or products designed for the Average Jane, traditional marketing and branding sought the widest spread and the largest customer base. But in 2014, these bastions of lowest common denominator thinking are slowly crumbling, thanks to the increasing fragmentation of media, culture, and interests. And these fragments — whether you call them tribes, micro-communities, or niches — have powerful potential for organizations, brands, and marketers.

The Internet has driven much of this change, providing a forum and technology for people to discuss, exchange, and rally around their favorite products, services, or interests. DVRs, shrinking electronics, and personalization search algorithms have also kneecapped the effectiveness of broad-based marketing and advertising. But while this scenario is challenging for those who still pursue the target audience of “anyone with a heartbeat,” there are opportunities out in the margins of the marketplace for savvy, passionate people and their organizations.

Niches have grown in and among the weeds of our culture, often centered around demographics, causes, shared interests, or the love of a product or service. Many of them present amazing opportunities for brands and marketers to tap into existing passion, or to create goods and services that people will respond to with zeal.

Good business is where you find it, and niches have potential value for marketers or organizations who find a fit, and are able to engage a micro-community — by opening new markets, co-creating ideas together, tapping “experts” for ideas or consultation, or engaging tribes as part of larger brand strategies. The number of opportunities is staggering, with the potential to birth small companies that reach even smaller audiences, to disrupting existing markets, creating new industries, or just reaching those with particular hairstyles.

After combing through the underbrush of culture and online forums, your team might see marketing potential in already-gathered tribes, but it’s not quite a point and shoot process. Niches are like bad science projects — they have the potential for great energy output and passion, but they also are very combustible. It doesn’t take much for a tribe to implode, disband, or destroy itself from within. It takes an astute traveler to navigate these ecosystems, all of which have their own rules, customs, and languages. Every micro-community is different, and require different approaches, methods, and tactics. You wouldn’t speak Klingon to a sabermathematician, but there are some general principles to consider when venturing into niches. Here are our necessary signposts to read along the way:

1. The passion of the few is better than the “meh” of the many.
If the success of the overall Kickstarter model tells us anything, it’s that you don’t need many enthusiastic “backers” to turn a product or service into a success. But in many cases, these supporters are not mere customers — they’re invested in the process of creation and development. They aren’t just consumers, but devotees — serious and excited enough about a publication, product, or film to take action before the actual work is completed. This turns the traditional consumer-supplier relationship on its head, and it works, because people care about the end result. That caring is potentially powerful, and when gathered into a small tribe or group, this zeal can easily outweigh a much larger audience of people who could take it or leave it.

2. For best results, fully immerse.
Once you determine what niche you want to explore, supply, (or exploit), you’ll need to embed yourself in the fabric of that chosen tribe. Become a real part of the culture — observe, listen, and finally, contribute. It takes time to build trust, understanding, and personal connections. Opportunistic carpetbaggers and phonies will be ferreted out, as authenticity is often the main coin of the realm where niches are concerned. Whether it’s among Wizard of Oz fans or Intellivision geeks, establishing yourself as credible is key to becoming part of a community. Also, truly understanding a niche leads to deeper insights, rather than knee-jerk solutions.

3. Real passion is required.
There’s nothing wrong with making money, but viewing niche communities purely as cash cows or “exploitable markets” misses the point. Often, these communities spring up and exist because of true brand love — maybe it’s for classic video games or unusual documentary work, and it’s that same passion that sustains them.

Surely there are opportunities for investors, organizations, and brands seeking to embed themselves within these niches for their own good, but genuine love for the subject matter or community has to be woven into any effort. Whether you’re building a product to reach fans of 3D photography or designing an app for creatives, truly authentic efforts will win the day. This requires your team to actually join the fray, or partner with those on the inside. This is both good business and ethical action — so it’s in your organization’s best interests to either go native and become one of your customers, or hire them.

4. Ask not what your niche can do for you.
With apologies to JFK, it’s important to enter a sector or tribe with a servant’s mindset. What needs do you see? How can you (or your organization) become inherently valuable to the residents of this subculture? Where do your offerings and their needs intersect? Engaging fans (and people) at this level removes some of the opportunistic stench from your efforts and disarms those who are skeptical of your intentions. It’s important to be transparent and honest about your desires, but it’s also just good form to pitch in and help before you ask for something in return.

5. Can you shrink?
Once you’ve chosen a community to focus on, and a way to engage with them, practical considerations crop up. Can your team streamline itself enough to handle a smaller, leaner business model that serves less people, but does so more intensely? Is it possible to narrow your offerings and still be profitable? These scaled-down strategies are not for everyone, but they are often crucial in effective efforts to reach overlooked niches. Mattel became an intriguing example of this when it morphed some of its less-profitable mass retail toy lines into collector-focused, subscription based offerings. Prices might be higher for collectors, and margins might be slimmer, but the brand is carving profit out of a long tail of desire by tapping into an intense fan community. It might require more personal touch and effort, but strategies like this make sense for many organizations.

6. Take the long view.
Truly embedding into niche cultures for business reasons isn’t an overnight endeavor. Just like constructing a building’s solid foundation, it’s important to build, grow, and contribute in a way that is measured, authentic, and stable. Like any good relationship, your organization’s connection to a micro-community will take time to germinate, but if the audience is responsive and positive, great things can happen. Some amazing organizations have grown out of brands’ efforts to satisfy and delight a niche audience. And often times, today’s niches become tomorrow’s mainstream.